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Washington Commanders owner Daniel Snyder “permitted and participated” in the team’s longtime toxic work culture and obstructed a 14-month congressional inquiry by dodging a subpoena, working to dissuade and intimidate witnesses from cooperating and claiming more than 100 times in testimony that he could not recall answers to basic questions, according to the final report of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform.
The committee’s 79-page report released Thursday also comes down hard on the NFL, concluding that the league was complicit in Snyder’s efforts by not cooperating with the congressional inquiry and burying a 2020-21 investigation of the Commanders’ workplace led by attorney Beth Wilkinson, the results of which have never been fully released.
“We saw efforts that we have never seen before, at least I haven’t,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-New York, who chaired the committee. “The NFL knew about it and they took no responsibility.”
NFL officials “were acting like they were doing something,” Maloney told ESPN. “Then they turn around and fix it so she can’t talk. Her report is never going to be made public, yet she was supposed to be hired to address it. The hypocrisy. The coordinated effort to hide what they acknowledged.”
The congressional report, citing allegations of harassment and abuse against several other teams, says the NFL has put the interests of league owners ahead of NFL employees, failing to protect them or ensure that victims can speak up without fear of retaliation.
“The NFL chose to bury Ms. Wilkinson’s findings and whitewash the misconduct it uncovered,” the committee’s report says. “Rather than seek real accountability, the NFL aligned its legal interests with Mr. Snyder’s, failed to curtail his abusive tactics, and buried the investigation’s findings.”
An NFL spokesman contacted by ESPN Thursday said the league had not seen the report and would not comment.